My name is Abigail Ayres, although I go by Abby, and I am a Sophomore here at the University of Central Florida. I grew up in Ocala, Florida, about an hour and a half north of Orlando, where my high school history teacher inspired me to pursue history. Unfortunately, due to Covid, I haven't had the opportunity to do much on campus. However, I am vice president of the Up All Knight Book Club at UCF and am looking forward to a semester of great reads! Outside of school, I am also training for a 10k with my roommates, and I like to embroider (although I am not very good at it.)
This semester, I am interning with the Florida Conference of Historians as an editor, and I am beyond excited to start this amazing opportunity! So far, we have only established a mode of communicating (Microsoft Teams) and are working to meet next week to introduce our assignments and expectations this semester. From what I understand, I will be helping undergraduate students prepare their papers for publication.
My research interests include Female Consumerism in early 20th century America and Medieval European History. These are two vastly different topics, so one of my goals this semester is to identify a specific topic to focus on for the rest of my college career.
Another one of my goals this semester is to gain experience within the history field. I volunteered as a summer camp counselor at the Orange County Regional History Center this past summer, where I interacted with people who pursued a profession in the museum industry. In my upcoming internship, I look forward to seeing other jobs I may explore with my degree.
I also hope to improve my critical reading and writing skills. As an editor, I will interact with students with similar goals, and I am excited to learn from them and my supervisor, Dr. Farless.
I also hope to develop more time management skills this semester. This is looking to be my busiest semester yet, which is both very exciting and nerve-racking! On top of this internship, I am taking four classes and am actively involved on campus through the book club. I'm so grateful for all these opportunities and am looking forward to some great learning opportunities.
On a much more practical note, I aim to learn more about Microsoft teams. Through all of the distance-communication developments these past two years, I have yet to use Microsoft Teams. This seems to be the primary method of communication for my interning program, so while I am anticipating a learning curve, I can't wait to gain competence with this new system.
Overall, I have lots of goals and expectations for this internship. I can't wait to see how I grow and what I can accomplish with this fantastic opportunity!
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